According to the US Department of Labor, during the 12-month period ending in March, the non-farm monthly employment statistics overestimated the addition of about 818,000 jobs, a downward revision of nearly 30%. Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump strongly accused the Biden administration of trying to manipulate economic data in order to conceal the economic disaster caused by the United States.
According to Fox News, economists believe that the latest data further indicates a weakening labor market. Over the past few years, the labor market has remained strong as the US economy soared during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession. Despite high interest rates and increasing concerns about an impending economic downturn, job growth continues.
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(Source: Fox News)
Trump has long criticized President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the top Democratic candidate for the 2024 presidential election last month. Trump claims that Americans have been dealing with high inflation during the three years of economic rebound.
Now, he argues that the Biden administration intentionally exaggerated employment data.
He wrote on his Truth Social platform, 'A massive scandal! The Biden-Harris administration has been found to manipulate employment statistics through fraudulent means to cover up the true extent of the economic damage they have caused to America.'
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(Source: Truth Social)
He emphasized, 'The latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the government added 818,000 job positions to the employment data that simply do not exist and never have.'
He mentioned at the end of the post: "The actual situation is even worse than the report. If He Jinli is elected again for four years, there will be millions of job positions disappearing overnight, and inflation will completely destroy our country. Your lifelong savings will be at risk of being wiped out. If Trump wins, we will once again usher in the greatest economy in history. MAGA 2024. #US election#"
In fact, Trump seems to have "known in advance" the significant revision of the non-farm data. He accused the employment data of being "falsified" during his speech in Michigan on Tuesday.
He said: "There are reports that the employment data for the past period is false. This is a great insult to our economy. The data we saw before was okay but not outstanding, but the adjusted data is catastrophic."
The revised data shows that the labor market started to cool much earlier than previously expected. It wasn't until the July non-farm employment report this year, which showed a sluggish pace of company recruitment and a fourth consecutive month of rising unemployment rate, that the alarm was sounded.
Some investors mentioned that this revision may support a 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist of LPL Financial, said: "If the labor market deteriorates earlier than 2024, I think the Federal Reserve may indeed cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September."
Charu Chanana, forex strategy director at Shengbao Bank, pointed out that the significant downward revision of the data may rekindle worries about weakening employment conditions. "This is a problem that Federal Reserve Chairman Powell may need to address. If the US August non-farm employment report released on September 6th shows a significant weakness, I may support a 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve."
Robert Frick, a corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, stated: "Goldman Sachs previously estimated a maximum downward revision of 1 million people, so the results of this report are not surprising and do not challenge the view that the US economy is still in the expansion phase. However, the data does indicate a more moderate growth in monthly employment numbers, putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut rates next month."
RBC Capital Markets economist Michael Reid said: "The revised non-farm data exacerbates the debate over a weak labor market, but we still believe that a weak labor market is part of the normalization process rather than a sign of deterioration."
Jared Bernstein, chair of the Biden Economic Advisory Council, stated that this preliminary revision has not changed the fact that employment recovery has been very strong and continues to be so. "This has brought us stable employment and wage growth, strong consumer spending, and record small business activity."
But overall, the market still believes that the revised data will not overly affect people's deepening concerns about economic recession, as the direction and overall magnitude of the revision have been anticipated for some time. As for the extent of the Fed's rate cut, a clearer indication is expected after the release of August non-farm employment data.